CARACAS, Venezuela, June 4 (Reuters) - Venezuela on Tuesday said that it had selected Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch/Shell Group (Amsterdam:RD.AS - News; London:SHEL.L - News) and Nippon Mitsubishi Oil Corp (Tokyo:5001.T - News) as partners to develop its $2-billion offshore North Paria liquefied natural gas project.
ExxonMobil Corp. (NYSE:XOM - News) of the U.S., the world's largest oil company, would not take part in the project, a Ministry of Energy and Mines spokesman said.
The project foresees building a liquefaction train with a capacity of 4.7 million tons per year to supply LNG (liquefied natural gas) to the U.S. East Coast.
The three companies had negotiated with Venezuela to build an LNG export plant in Paria since the 1980s. Venezuela, the world's fifth largest oil exporter, also holds the eighth largest gas reserves.